HOCKEY

HOCKEY;Blinking Back the Tears, Montreal Closes Its Forum

AP

Published: March 12, 1996

MONTREAL, March 11—
On the night hockey said goodbye to the Montreal Forum, even The Rocket's eyes were misty.

Long after the Montreal Canadiens had beaten the Dallas Stars by 4-1 tonight in the final game at hockey's 72-year-old shrine, Maurice Richard stood at center ice, his eyes clouded with tears.

The ovation lasted nearly 10 minutes as a galaxy of Hall of Famers from Canadiens' teams of yesteryear passed the torch to a team that's struggling to make the Stanley Cup playoffs.

"He deserved it," said Guy Lafleur, who led the Canadiens to four consecutive Stanley Cups in the late 1970s. "He's the guy who started the history of the Montreal Canadiens. It was emotional, especially when they brought the torch on the ice."

The torch was the brainchild of the former Canadiens coach Dick Irvin, who in 1940 took a verse from a World War I poem, "In Flanders Fields," and had it emblazoned on the locker room wall: "To you, with fallen hands, we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high."

Emil (Butch) Bouchard held it high one last time as he walked from the dressing room, a lit torch in his hands, and carried it into the arena, handing it off to Richard, who in turn passed it along to other former captains of hockey's most storied team: Jean Beliveau, Yvan Cournoyer, Henri Richard, Serge Savard, Bob Gainey, Guy Carbonneau, then current Montreal star Pierre Turgeon.

"For us it was a great moment," said Devils Coach Jacques Lemaire, a star of the Canadiens teams of the 1970's. "One time I looked around and saw 11 guys that played on the same team. I told Ken Dryden, 'No wonder we won so many Stanley Cups here.' "

The two dozen Stanley Cup banners that lent an aura of intimacy to the Forum will be auctioned Tuesday night. They will be replaced by replicas twice as large for the vast 21,361-seat Molson Centre that will open Saturday night with a game against the Rangers.

Photo: The former Canadiens star Maurice (The Rocket) Richard dabbinghis eyes during an ovation he received in ceremonies closing the Forum. (Associated Press)